NoPa

To celebrate our Eat & Drink awards (a.k.a the Piggies, thusly named because winners receive their own bronze pig statuette) we convinced seven of our winning restaurants to host pork-centric dinners on Monday nights throughout the month of February.

Last Monday, we threw our annual Eat + Drink Awards party, where we revealed our picks for the 5 Best Restaurants in the City and also announced the winners of the Eat + Drink Reader's Choice Awards. In addition to a healthy buzz from the Bulleit Bourbon cocktails, all the honorees walked away with a bronze pig (we like to think of them as the SF restaurant scene's version of the Oscars). Check out the video from the party below (we're just as fancy).

“Good meat is 95 percent of a good burger. It should be well-seasoned with salt and pepper; Nopa seasons their beef well in advance, which makes a huge difference. I order mine medium-rare and smear it with a side of their feta-harissa dip. They use brioche-style soft buns, which I like. Zuni’s burger is really good, with the house-made ketchup and pickled onions and zucchini, but there’s one problem—it’s on focaccia, which gets soggy. You end up having to eat it with a fork and knife. The burger at Taylor’s Automatic Refresher is close to perfect. I get it with raw onions—I like the crunch—and American cheese. Yup, American.

Here’s how you know blogging has reached the mainstream: chefs — notoriously short on time, and mostly workaholics — have somehow made time for the pursuit. Some blogs, such as the one kept by cook Richie Nakano of Nopa (linecook415.blogspot.com) offer a behind-the-scenes look at a busy SF restaurant. Others, such as the one written by Brett Emerson, owner and chef at the forthcoming Noe Valley restaurant Contigo (inpraiseofsardines.typepad.com), chronicle the harrowing process of opening a restaurant in the city.